Madam Speaker, as I was saying, the government chose the patron saint of hopeless causes, or perhaps I should say the patron saint of desperate causes, as the new Minister of Finance. Today, the government was supposed to table the economic update and present it to the House. One does not need a PhD to know that the government has to make a speech when it tables such a document and that the opposition must have the right to reply. However, the government has muzzled MPs. I watched all of this play out. The Liberals are as confused as a chameleon in a bag of Skittles. They are completely lost. We are all wondering whether we are going to have a right of reply. We found a way to reply, and we are very happy about that.
We were on pins and needles as we waited for the economic update. We thought that it might contain something extraordinary, but there was nothing there except one very important thing. The only essential information is this. In April, the former finance minister promised, hand on heart, that the deficit would not exceed $40 billion. I am certain she was sincere. However, since then, all we have seen is problem after problem.
In October, the Parliamentary Budget Officer forecast a deficit of $46.8 billion. That was worrying. Then the election goodies started, with the Prime Minister handing them out left and right. People had to calm him down a bit, but the Prime Minister was not done yet. He is a bit over the top when it comes to spending. We now find ourselves staring down a $48.3‑billion deficit, and that is not the end of it either. There are three and a half months to go before the end of the fiscal year. It is worrying. That is what the economic update offered. My colleague will talk about that in more detail.
In reading this document, it is clear that there is nothing exceptional about it, except for one thing: the Minister of Finance resigned. The person who was supposed to table this document stepped down. She chose not to table it because she has principles. Perhaps the Prime Minister can learn something from his former finance minister. She had promised not to exceed $40 billion, but she did not agree with the Prime Minister.
At one point, the Prime Minister had Mr. Morneau resign because he was not spending enough. Some people are saying that the Prime Minister provoked the finance minister's resignation because he did not think she was spending enough. That is disturbing. It is always easy to spend other people's money, and the Prime Minister knows a thing or two about that.
Today, the Deputy Prime Minister resigned. This is like if Spock, from Star Trek, threw himself out a porthole to escape the Enterprise after losing all trust in Captain Kirk. It is unheard of. People are saying that the Deputy Prime Minister resigned, but keep in mind that she was the second-in-command of the government. She took a few swipes at the Prime Minister on her way out the door, too. Obviously, I mean figurative swipes.
We had a government that was not working well. Everything it touched turned to mud. It had the opposite of the Midas touch. As soon as something that was working well landed on the Prime Minister's desk, it turned to mud, with lots of smoke pouring out from everywhere.
There were 20 Liberal mutineers who were popular this summer. Then that number climbed to 40. It was not clear what was going on. Finally, the mutineers calmed down. Now there are eight ministers who are not running in the next election, but it does not end there. There are eight ministers that we know of who are saying they are not interested in running in the next election. They did not exactly put it that way. They came up with excuses. They see the polls and they have to turn the poll upside down to see if they are in first place. At some point, they looked at the polls and realized that things were not going their way. They started talking amongst themselves. It seems like the Prime Minister is the only one who thinks he still has a chance, but he has never been good with numbers. That might explain some things.
The Liberal Deputy Prime Minister has decided to jump ship. I feel for those folks. I saw their faces during question period. They are going through a tough time. I look at the Prime Minister and wonder whether the guy still has the confidence of his members. I think not. Does he have the confidence of his ministers? Except for a few of them, I think it is safe to say the answer is no. Does he have the confidence of the people? I think it is safe to say the answer there is also no.
The Bloc Québécois has a proposal for the Prime Minister. He remains convinced that he is the right person for the job. The proof is that he was the first head of state to visit Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. He was barely out the door when Trump started insulting him. He called him the governor of the 51st state. If he was trying to show leadership on the international stage, it is fair to say that he missed the mark, so there is that, too.
Every time he does something, it does not work. He reminds me of the donkey that always has a dark cloud over its head in the adventures of Winnie the Pooh. If he were the only one getting wet, it would not matter so much, but he is dragging the public down with him. It is not funny.
The Bloc Québécois has been telling the government that we have a responsibility in the House. The House has been paralyzed for the past three months because the government is refusing to hand over documents. We have been talking to the government and asking it why it does not free up Parliament. The government says that it is because it does not want to hand over the documents, even though it has been ordered by the House to do so. The government does not want to hand over the documents, and Parliament is paralyzed. However, that does not bother the government because it no longer has any vision or ideas.
The only idea that the government had was the GST holiday. I think the government can let that go, calm down, take a shower and have a cup of tea. That is the only decision that the government has made, and it has been condemned by economists, Quebeckers and business owners. Everyone was against that idea. The government spent $1.6 billion on a ridiculous GST holiday.
I could tell all kinds of stories about that. It is completely ridiculous, and nobody can figure out how it works. For example, the GST exemption applies to soft dolls. A woman had a soft doll with a rigid head, so the question was what to do about that and whether the doll was exempt. It took 12 people to talk about it and figure it out. What is that all about? That is what things have come to. This is a government that does not deserve Canadians' confidence and that does not have Canadians' confidence. The Prime Minister believes otherwise.
The Bloc Québécois talks to people. We listen to them, we hear them. What we are hearing is that Quebeckers want this government out of office. The government no longer represents them. Did they ever really feel it represented them? They likely did, since the Liberals were elected. However, their expiry date has passed. What we would like is for this Prime Minister to act like a statesman, like de Gaulle. He should stand up in the House and roll up his sleeves. If he is convinced he is right, he should call an election. It is the only option he has left.
The Bloc Québécois will be there. We are going to criss-cross Quebec, we are going to talk to Liberal members and we are going to take part in debates. We are going to make Quebeckers understand that the only credible option to defend Quebec's interests in the House, the only party that looks them in the eye and only in the eye, the only party that speaks for them without compromise, the only party that knows their values and their needs, is the Bloc Québécois. We will be back in the House with a lot more MPs.